I had a question about people asking me to print them stuff. I know that with the files from thingiverse released with a creative commons license youre not supposed to sell the prints. But what if i sell them similar to how 3D hubs does it. Where i charge them for the cost of the material and the time it takes to print? Would there be any issue with that?
Are you asking for legal advice, or ethical advice?
In any event: check the license of whatever thing you’re printing, because there are different versions of the Creative Commons license. Unless it’s specifically non-commercial, you’re still allowed to sell the parts at a profit.
Not sure which one i need lol
Entiendo que no hay problema que una persona al otro lado del mundo pueda encontrar su medio de vida imprimiendo archivos que otro diseño. De hecho voy a empezar a subir mis diseños con ese sentido. Es el intercambio de conocimiento el que nos va a llevar a un mundo más justo y equilibrado.
Legally, charging them for the time on the printer, and the material to print it is a legal loophole. Yes, lots of people do this (not just in the 3D printing industry either). Is it ethical? Well; if they come to you with the file – I say yes. They have found the item on their own, they simply want your services to print it. However, if you are presenting them with that file as a solution - or introducing them to it beforehand, I’d say it crosses an ethical line.
As an example - if I went to shapeways to have them print loubie’s aria dragon in stainless steel, there should be no problem with that. However, if shapeways put up pictures and started saying “aria dragon $19.99”; there would be an issue.
The default Thingiverse CC-BY-SA license is ok to sell any way you want with no issues whatsoever. If the design license is -NC you have some deciding to do.
- is the print a purely functional design with no artistic elements? If so, the print has no copyrightable elements and thus the CC license claim has no legal bearing at all. CC only applies to copyrightable works and purely functional designs cannot be copyrighted. Then you have to decide if you want be nice and respect the designer’s wishes, or just do what you want.
- If the print contains copyrightable artistic elements, the CC license protects the artistic aspects of the design. For example, a chair with a logo on it. If you remove the copyrighted logo from the chair model, you can freely print the chair part.
- Like @ThantiK mentions, if you want to print a -NC design with a valid license for money, there’s a legal gray area where you charge for “printing services” of someone else’s model and require them to assert in writing that they have the legal right to reproduce the model. If your customer is using the part for non-commercial services, and you’re selling them printer time as a paid service, that’s ARGUABLY legal. It’s a serious gray area with no court precedents though.
I think you’d have a hard time arguing “purely functional” on a lot of stuff. Even a bracket embodies aesthetic choices, and meaningful compromises that required domain knowledge.
What if someone saw me fidgeting with a spinner and asked me to print one for them? I cant just hand them out they take precious printer time. I have that thing going atleast 22/7
@Nick_Johnson aesthetic choices and domain knowledge in functional design are usually irrelevant to copyrightability. The test the court applies is whether the creative feature is “separable” from the function. For example, a logo on the back of a chair can be separated from the chair (and put on paper or a sculpture or whatever) and thus is copyrightable… but a clever and original design for the arrangement of chair parts is integral to the chair function and thus NOT copyrightable. If you want to protect the creative parts of the functional design then you need a patent.
I think the big thing to remember is the golden rule:
“Don’t be a dick”
If your friend wants a print, of course they should pay for the plastic. Just don’t open an Etsy store or something selling other people’s ideas. That’s a dick move. But if it’s a dozen of your friends, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
And god forbid, you come up with something cool and add it back to Thingiverse or another repository.
No one will take you to court over something silly. It’s up there to share.
I’d charge for the labor of printing it and eat the cost of the plastic. In my state labor is not taxed also unlike selling someone a physical thing. The two conspects are mutually exclusive.
Thanx @Justin_Garski yeah im not looking to open up a store to pour in cash based on other people’s ideas. Thats just not cool. But you wouldnt believe how quickly people started asking for stuff when they heard i had a printer. Im talking day one. Im barely getting my toes wet figuring the darn thing out lol
Can you just try to contact and ask the designer himself in the first place 
If you manage to sell it with a margin, just propose to share it and he may be OK though his own licence is not